Immigration at the Golden Gate: Passenger Ships, Exclusion, and Angel Island.

Chung, Sue Fawn

IMMIGRATION AT THE GOLDEN GATE: PASSENGER SHIPS, EXCLUSION, AND ANGEL ISLAND

By Robert Eric Barde (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008, 304 pp., illus., $49.95 cloth)

PAPER FAMILIES: IDENTITY, IMMIGRATION ADMINISTRATION, AND CHINESE EXCLUSION

By Estelle T. Lau (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006, 232 pp., illus., $79.95 cloth, $22.95 paper)

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THE OPIUM DEBATE AND CHINESE EXCLUSION LAWS IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN WEST

By Diana L. Abroad (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2007, 208 pp., illus., $34.95 cloth)

AFTER READING THE 1916 immigration file at the National Archives (NARA) at San Bruno, California, on Chew Hoy Quong and his "alleged wife," Quok Shee, Robert Barde became interested in the Chinese immigration process. He subsequently researched the shipping lines that carried Chinese emigrants, the attempts of the Bureau of Immigration (forerunner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service) to enforce the Chinese exclusion laws, and the confinement and treatment of Chinese immigrants at Angel Island. Having investigated the Pacific Mail Steamship Company (PMSC), the major shipping line carrying Asian passengers, and the immigrants' experience aboard the ships, he has written a pioneering study that reveals details about the difficulties of Chinese immigration during the exclusionary period (188:2-1943).

Barde details the Bureau of Immigration's interrogations of Chinese immigrants and the roles of the inspectors, interpreters, and attorneys involved in the immigration process. He uncovers the famous smuggling cases that American officials participated in and ends where he began, with an analysis of the Quok Shee case, whose fate was unknown. In 1927, Chew Hoy Quong returned from China once again and listed his marital status as "single," raising doubts as to the validity of his earlier marriage. The Quok Shee case exemplified thousands of others found at NARA.

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Barde could have given a little more background on the Chinese immigration situation. The men in charge of the Bureau of Immigration were former officers in the staunchly anti-Chinese labor unions and were determined to keep the Chinese out and deport those illegally in the United States. They were well versed in the "paper relatives" (false sons, daughters, and wives) system that the Chinese devised to circumvent American immigration laws. The harsh stance taken on "alleged wives" stemmed from the 1875 Page Law, which made it almost impossible for Chinese women to immigrate and from the numerous "mistakes" that the bureau's officers made in admitting "alleged wives" who were later discovered to be prostitutes in Chinatown. These files also are located at NARA. Through these laws and regulations, Chinese males were forced to live a "bachelor-like" existence so contrary to the Chinese family and kinship organization that dominated life in south China.

I highly recommend this book to the general public and academic community interested in migration, Asian immigration, business history, transpacific studies, and Asian studies. Thirty-two illustrations that enhance the study will enlighten visitors to the Angel Island Immigration Station and provide the general public with the fascinating story about some of the difficulties that Chinese immigrants faced during this period.

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In two other volumes under review, the authors present the "dark" side of Chinese immigration during the exclusion era: Diana Ahmad focuses on Chinese opium smoking, which led anti-Chinese moral crusaders to link this demoralizing and addictive practice to the campaign for Chinese exclusion, and Estelle Lau examines the Chinese solution to the exclusion laws by creating paper families in order to enter the United States between 1882 (passage of the first of several major Chinese exclusion acts) and 1943 (the repeal of Chinese exclusion acts).

Although only a small percentage of Chinese immigrants became opium addicts, the demoralizing practice spread to the larger community, particularly prostitutes, middle- and upper class Anglo American women, and "young people" with spare time, thus raising a reaction from Anglo Americans, who launched a rigorous anti-opium and anti-Chinese campaign that finally culminated with the passage of the 1914 Harrison Narcotics Act.

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Ahmad separates medicinal opium from smoking opium and traces its usage to China. However, she fails to note that prior to the Dutch introduction of the smoking of opium to Taiwan, the Chinese chewed opium as a painkiller and did not become addicted using it in this manner. She examines the drug's usage in America and its popularity in American mining communities from the late nineteenth century until its use in recent times among Hmong immigrants. She cites court cases in which the Chinese were successful but neglects to point out the entrapment (using present-day terminology) tactics of federal narcotics agents whose Indian agents bribed Native Americans with a bottle of liquor to buy twenty-five cents' worth of opium from a Chinese man, who was then arrested, imprisoned, and probably deported for violating the narcotics laws. There are other minor problems in the work, but Ahmad pioneers a much-neglected and unpublicized aspect of Chinese American history.

Lau's excellent study looks at the elaborate "paper families" that were created so that Chinese immigrants and their families could bring relatives, friends, kinsfolk, or, in some cases strangers, to the United States, in spite of the country's restrictive immigration policies and practices beginning with the 1875 Page Law. Despite numerous efforts and approaches of immigration officials to keep the Chinese out or deport them, and the discretionary powers that they had, the Chinese discovered loopholes that allowed just as many new Chinese immigrants to enter the United States as during the "free" period of immigration (1850-82).

Using immigration and naturalization records and papers, including the restricted "A-files" from the Confession Program (1955-70), Lau shows how fake relatives managed to enter while real relatives were kept out. The Confession Program was designed to end the fraudulent identity practice but also was a means of deporting those who did not confess. The fictitious families affected the Chinese community in America in many ways for several generations, as fear of being discovered for illegal entry hindered full participation in American society. Immigration and Naturalization Service case files help reveal the elaborate interrogations and tell the stories of many Chinese immigrants.

REVIEWED BY SUE FAWN CHUNG, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS, AND COAUTHOR OF CHINESE AMERICAN DEATH RITUALS: RESPECTING THE ANCESTORS